Dozens of movies and documentaries about Muhammad Ali have highlighted his historic comeback battle in 1970, which got here greater than three years after he was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to enlist throughout the Vietnam War.
But “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” the newest venture to revisit that monumental night time, focuses on a most important occasion that erupted removed from the ring.
The eight-part Peacock miniseries focuses on a violent armed theft simply miles from the sold-out occasion at Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, when thugs invaded an after-party attended by high mob bosses and escaped with extra of $1 million in money and jewellery. The incident, based on the producers, was instrumental in positioning Atlanta away from its Jim Crow previous and remodeling it right into a metropolitan vacation spot for black wealth, nicknamed the “Black Mecca.”
Premiering Thursday, “Fight Night” is predicated on iHeartwork’s 2020 true crime podcast of the identical title and includes a top-notch ensemble together with Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Don Cheadle and Kevin Hart.
“Fight Night” options an all-star solid. From left: Atkins Estimond as Silky Brown, Kevin Hart as Chicken Man, Terrence Howard as Cadillac Richie, Samuel L. Jackson as Frank Moten and Michael James Shaw as Lamar.
(PEACOCK/Parrish Lewis/PEACOCK)
While moviegoers will doubtless be drawn to the star-studded solid and Hart’s dramatic flip as fast-talking con man Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, the venture stands out with a particular stylistic really feel that captures the flavour of traditional Nineteen Nineties movies. 70, injecting them with the in-your-face swagger of blaxploitation fare like “Shaft” and “Superfly.” The old-school R&B soundtrack is full of classic hits from Billy Paul (“Am I Black Enough For You?”) and the Temptations (“Papa Was a Rolling Stone”), whereas a lot of the fast-paced motion is proven from a number of angles without delay on the identical display screen.
“I used to be at all times fascinated by the aesthetic of these movies and the angle the place nothing is delicate and every thing involves you with propulsive music and trend,” mentioned Craig Brewer, who directed 4 episodes, together with the premiere. “It’s about folks attempting desperately to get what they need and what they want.”
Shaye Ogbonna, who created the sequence, is the showrunner and wrote some episodes. “We’ve performed one thing you have by no means seen earlier than from a storytelling perspective,” he mentioned.
Ogbonna felt an extra dedication to capturing the authenticity and significance of that night and what it meant to Atlanta’s black inhabitants.
“This is private for me and for Craig,” he mentioned in a Zoom interview. “I’m a son of the town and a product of the neighborhood. With the themes and concepts we’re exploring, there’s a duty that I take very significantly. This is a high-level black venture with many assets. It is essential that the story is instructed appropriately and precisely. There aren’t many alternatives like this.”
Shaye Ogbonna, left, with Samuel L. Jackson and Erika L. Johnson, an govt producer, on the set of “Fight Night.”
(PEACOCK/Parrish Lewis/PEACOCK)
At the middle of the saga is Chicken Man, a determined dreamer who sees a life-changing alternative within the commotion surrounding Ali’s assembly with Jerry Quarry. When he learns that New York crime boss Frank Motin (Jackson) and different high gangsters will journey to Atlanta to battle, he throws a lavish occasion that he hopes will cement him as a serious mover and shaker.
“At its core, this story is a couple of metropolis that’s beginning to embrace its tradition,” Brewer mentioned. “We see this course of by means of the character of Chicken Man, coping with these gangsters in New York and Chicago who despise him and the way that makes him really feel.”
When the occasion turns into a criminal offense scene, he finds himself dealing with a former adversary: police detective J.D. Hudson (Cheadle) who was assigned to guard Ali and now should examine the theft.
Ogbonna, who wrote a number of episodes of Showtime’s “The Chi,” and Brewer, whose directing credit embody the 2005 Memphis-set drama “Hustle & Flow” and Eddie Murphy’s “Dolemite Is My Name,” had not by no means labored collectively earlier than becoming a member of forces on Showtime’s “The Chi.” Fight night time.” But they found that they had related pursuits.
“Our sensibilities are the identical,” Ogbonna mentioned. “A whole lot of the movies we have been speaking about have been ’70s and blaxploitation movies. That knowledgeable the excessive cinematic aesthetic that we wished to inform this down-to-earth black story. That’s the look we wished.”
Brewer was additionally influenced by the work of Oscar-winning director Norman Jewison, who died in January, whose work typically addressed social and political points.
“I began doing an in-depth evaluation of his movies. In the ultimate concern of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ there’s this ’70s second the place everybody abandons the Afro and the style,” Brewer mentioned. “I observed that the lights had these fantastic filters. I believed it could be an amazing search for the Ali battle.”
The sequence has a particular Seventies really feel in each the costumes and the best way it was shot. Teresa Celeste as Maxine, left, and Taraji P. Henson as Vivian, Chicken Man’s girlfriend.
(PEACOCK/Fernando Decillis/PEACOCK)
Another supply of inspiration was Jewison’s 1968 heist movie “The Thomas Crown Affair,” one of many first main movies to make use of the split-screen method.
“It’s instructed in all these panels on the identical display screen,” Brewer mentioned. “This was performed by Quentin Tarantino and others who wished to go in a ’70s path as a gimmick, however I discovered it served a beautiful narrative operate. You may consult with one thing and see it from totally different angles on the identical time.
Also instrumental in portraying that period precisely was Jackson, who was dwelling in Atlanta on the time of the battle.
“Sam has an Atlanta connection,” Ogbonna mentioned. “Having him round was like having a historian on set. He acquired married within the church across the nook the place Chicken Man’s occasion was held.”
Ogbonna mentioned he’s extraordinarily pleased with the completed product and hopes audiences will get pleasure from it. He additionally hopes that the principle objective behind “Fight Night” is evident.
“I need them to know one thing concerning the Atlanta that we now know as this metropolis of the American South,” he mentioned. “It all began with these folks, simply regular individuals who made selections, some good, some unhealthy. It’s about aspirations. We know our historical past. The South had one thing to say and we shouted it out loud.”
